Sunday 12 January 2020, 12:30pm
Is it possible to start again at 61?
Is it possible, to start a new career at an age when, in time gone by, you would already have been put out to grass?
Is it possible, at 61, to carve out a living doing something you’ve never done before, on your own, with no support at all and no money of your own to help you get started?
Is it possible to follow a dream you’ve had for most of your 61 years, when you need it to happen quickly enough to avoid plummeting into abject poverty, if not complete destitution?!
Is it possible to put in the work required to follow that dream, at an age when your reserves of energy and optimism have already taken a hammering from Life, and so the task seems at best perhaps a little absurd, and on a bad day, a mountain of completely insurmountable proportions?
Is it possible to hold firm in your resolve to pursue that dream, when everyone around you is urging “Wouldn’t it be easier to just get a little job?” (on the assumption that your creative spirit could ever be happy being crushed under the weight of nine to five mundanity for a minimum wage, that would anyway only allow you to Exist for the rest of your days, but never any more to Live)?
Is it possible to start again, following your life’s dream, with an urgency driven by no money and no plan B, when you already struggle to complete the most mundane tasks every day due to lifelong ADHD, regular migraines and intermittent bouts of anxiety, and depression?!
Is this going to be possible? Starting again? With nothing more than a dream and a need to eat? At 61!
Phew.
I guess if there’s no plan B, I’m just going to have to jump in and find out.
Wanna come with me?